VPLP 25 TH ANNIVERSARY

Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, 25 years of successfull cooperation. (from Nautic News)

VPLP is the most famous multihull design office in the World. With 25 employees, in two different offices, one in Vannes in charge of racing yachts and the other one in Paris in charge of cruising yachts, they are two of the most talented architects in the Multihull World.

Some of their most famous racing yachts :

• PIERRE PREMIER / 60 foot trimaran / 1989
• HYDROPTERE / 60 foot hydrofoil / 1994
• SPORT ELEC / 90 foot trimaran / 1997
• Groupama I-II-II / 60-90-105 trimarans / 1998-2004-2007
• GERONIMO / 110 trimaran / 2001
• GEANT / 60 trimaran / 2002
• BANQUE POPULAIRE V / 131 trimaran / in built

This is just to list a few of them.

So many successfull designs if the racing world has led the team to work on project for the nautical industry with production yachts and custom project.

Some of their production yachts :

• LAGOON 55 / 1987 - LAGOON 47 / 1990 - LAGOON 42 / 1991 ---- LAGOON 44 /2004 - LAGOON 420/2006 - LAGOON 380 the smallest but with close to 500 units built.
• KEENEX 445 / 1990
• SWITCH 51 / 1999
  

Back to the main subject of the blog luxury catamaran.

LONESTAR

VPLP started designing luxury cruising catamarans with the twin 85-footer HIGHEST HONOUR I and II on 1991 (one of them now being LONE STAR ). The twin were already built in composite and designed with sucess for the charter industry .

DOUCE FRANCE

In 1999 they enter the mega catamaran market with the largest cruising catamaran designed and built so far DOUCE FRANCE a stunning 140' built in Aluminum by Alumarine. DOUCE FRANCE has a ketch rig and can accomodate 12 guests with 8 crew.

CILIAM

In 2003, CORIOLAN VI Bis 77' was launched, built entirely in carbon by the Multiyacht Compositi shipyard in italy. The same year came out the ground breaking CILIAM a 92 footer in composite built by Salt House Shipyard in Australia. This catamaran features a very innovative design with a lot of room inside due to the fact that the roof is as large as the beam. The owner cabin is one the main platform at mast foot and enjoys a great sea view. Finally CILIAM is a fast catamaran with a 35 carbon rotating wing mast. In 2003 again, CHE , a 73 footer was launched at the SUNREEF shipyard in Poland.

GEMINI

This year VPLP will reach a climax with the launching of GEMINI, the largest private owner cruising catamaran in the world built at the DERECKTOR shipyard in the US. GEMINI will accomadate 10 guests in five statesrooms and 6 crew. I look forward to see this mega cat launched.

Finally again this year also will be launched one of my favorite project, very small compare to the GEMINI, but really fast the all carbon SIG 45 from Le Breton Yachts.

With other drawings on their boards and a growing market for luxury catamaran, I am sure the team will keep on working on great designs and of course see many of their yachts launched in the future.

WAVE PIERCING CATAMARAN 1

Always surfing the web looking for yachts cruising on two hulls, I did some research (short) on Wave Piercing Catamarans. It seems it is an Australian and New Zealand specialty since most of the luxury wave piercers I found were designed and/or built in Australia and New Zealand and some Asia. Here are a few of them.

SHER KHAN - Agressive Looking Exterior

This is SHER KHAN, a 75-footer. She was built in 2003 in Brisbane and offers three double cabins for 6 guests with a crew of 3. Her Asian interior design contrasts with her agressive exterior. Apparently SHER KHAN has been sold and was located in Phuket, Thailand. If you have more information let me know.

SHER KHAN soft interior

HARUKU cruising

This is HARUKU, 22 meter designed by famous catamarans designers Incat Crowther. HARUKU was designed for an Indonesian Owner. HARUKU has accomodations for 6 guest and 3 crews. With a service speed of 24 knots she is also a long distance cruiser. She was launched in 2002 by the Austal group which is a garantee of her quality, they have the most impressive list of launched motor catamarans with facilities in Australia, Asia and the USA.

HARUKU salon

ULTIMATE LADY cruising

Last for today, ULTIMATE LADY, a 26.7 meter wave piercing luxury catamaran, Super Yacht of the Year Award in 1998. ULTIMATE LADY was designed by New Zealand CRAIG LOOMES DESIGN GROUP LIMITED. I guess if you are looking a wave piercing yacht you should get in touch with those guys. They are wave piercing specialists from catamarans to trimarans with design project up to 86 meters. ULTIMATED LADY can cruise 3000 miles at 25 knots.

This is just a short survey, you now have the links to the major designers and builders. I will write a post in the coming weeks about the adavantges/disadvantage of wave piercers.

GUNBOAT 90

GUNBOAT 90 owner suite - RHOADES YOUNG DESIGN

Eight months have passed since I wrote a post about the GUNBOAT 62 SAFARI which really is a great looking catamaran. SAFARI also has a blog now. GUNBOAT is one of the most popular keyword used to access my blog. I am not suprised by the success of the GUNBOAT concept : fast, safe, top quality catamaran for owners who really want to sail far away with great daily average. Excatly my type. On the water speed is fun but most of all it means safety. Peter Johnston, GUNBOAT's boss, just sent me some news. They have sold 6 of their GUNBOAT 66 (with others sales pending) and one of their GUNBOAT 90 (with other sales pending), which is quite a success.

Each GUNBOAT can be fully customized. The first GUNBOAT 90 features four doubles suites with their own heads and direct access to the saloon. The starboard hull hosts the captain's cabin and the port side hull hosts the crew mess. The galley is up, which is great feature available on catamarans, and also functions as a bar. The view in the salon is 360 degree open on the outside. The design of the salon looks really confortable with the GUNBOAT's touch : a chart table and navstation with I guess a carbon wheel at mast foot for the view and shelter. I really like the classical interior by Rhoades Young. They have a long list of sailboats interiors references for famous shipyards as Royal Huisman ANTARES, Vitters MYSTERE, Swan ARISTICHOS. You might think the salon looks quite small for a 90 foot catamaran, well first this is a fast boat and second you have two cockpits on the GUNBOAT 90 one at the aft and one at mast foot. Boats are nothing but compromise. The aft cockpit features two tables for all fresco dining and direct access to the transom and the main dinghy platform whichs transorms to a swimplatform. The cockpit at mast foot is quite impressive it is divided into two salons located in each hull. Finally you can access the roof which makes a huge sunbathing platform. This luxury catamaran is designed to enjoy the sun. If you want to see more of the GUNBOAT 90 go on GUNBOAT's new great looking website.

I will keep you update with this project and hopefully I will manage to get some pictures of the first GUNBOAT 66.

FIRST EXCLUSIVE 76 DEMOULDED

The complete platform of the first EXCLUSIVE 76, built for a private owner, has been demoulded at the King Cat /Vip Composite shipyard in Les Sables d'Olonne (France).

As you can see on the pictures the hulls and the platform come out of the moulds in one piece which is a guaranty of a strong platform/hulls connection a very important area of stress in a catamaran. A well performed infusion process, on that size of a catamaran, insures flawless hulls. The King Cat/ VIP composite shipyard is really specialized in the SCRIMP (Seemann Composite Resin Infusion Molding Process), having built the KINGCAT M272 and 220 JBOATS in 2007 !!! The SCRIMP was invented by Bill Seeaman and first used by famous US shipyards such as Sabre, Hinckley. The King Cat/VIP composite shipyard is being actually re-organized to increase quality and performance. In the coming weeks the Exclusive production team will focus its energy on the deck and the flybridge while on the side the interior fittings are being built simoultaneously in ready to fit in"cocoon kits". This process is now used by many shipyards. Basically, you build each part ofthe interior on the side of the boat while the plumbing and the electricity is done aboard so technicians don't get in each others way (like in plane building). So you build a bath room, the galley... and then you fit them in one by one. This unables to save time and to gain in quality because it is easier to work out of the boat than inside. The Exclusive marine website is changing with lots of news 3ds renderings. The Exclusive 76 has been divided in two version a classic and a design one. I prefer the classic version because it is warmer. I am still amazed by the amount of volume available both insided and outside on a catamaran of this size.

Exclusive Marine dealers for the US is Willmar USA.